If it doesn't taste good, why eat it?

I work a 9-5 type of job so Saturday & Sunday are my days off and I tend to use them for food prep. This includes the soaking and cooking of dried beans which tend to take more time than I have to spend on dinner on any given week day. I like to buy more beans than are called for in whatever recipe I’m tackling, cook them all, and freeze the unused portion for another meal the following week. This way I get twice the bang for my single buck of time.

For kidney beans I buy about a pound of dried beans, put them in a container twice as big as the bean content, cover them with water, put the lid on, and pop them in the fridge overnight. When it’s time to cook, strain the beans out of the soaking water (as it has oligosaccharides in it which were released by the beans during soaking and can lead to digestive discomfort). Place the strained beans into a pan at least twice the volume of the beans and add about ten cups of water. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer and put on a timer for 40 minutes. At that point try one bean for doneness. If there’s still a tiny bit of crunch to it, let them continue to cook for a minute or two (or five- whatever it takes).

When the beans are cooked to my liking I shut the heat off and add about 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, give them a stir, and let them sit for just a couple more minutes to absorb some of that flavor. Next, strain out the cooking water (make sure to check your recipe to see if you need to reserve that flavorful H2O) and place the cooked beans in storage containers in the fridge or freezer. This method results in a firm (I hate mushy beans!) bean with a hint of salt that is great in soups or stews or even just to snack on.

If you are going to eat the beans as a side dish where they are the star of the show, rather than in a soup or stew where there are lots of other flavors coming together, consider cooking them in stock rather than in water.

About the author

I buy fresh, local, organic ingredients and make our meals (and snacks) from scratch. Knowing what is in the foods that we eat is important to me because it's what our bodies are composed of. Your life literally depends on it.